President Trump narrows high court pick to 4 -- or 3 or 2

"I think I've made it pretty clear if a nominee has demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade and has said that they're not going to abide by that long-standing precedent, that I could not support that nominee", Collins told reporters at a holiday parade in Bangor.

Vice President Mike Pence met this week with three potential Supreme Court nominees, Brett Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge and Amy Coney Barrett, according to a source with knowledge of the meetings. As part of the rollout process, the White House has been preparing information packages on all four, said two people familiar with the process who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The three judges are considered to be the strongest contenders ahead of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nomination announcement on Monday evening.

The president and White House officials involved in the process have fielded calls and messages and have been on the receiving end of public pleas and op-eds for or against specific candidates ever since Kennedy announced on June 27 that he would retire this summer. He could still consider others in the mix. To see more, visit KUT 90.5.

"I think I have it down to four people".

Pence met with Kethledge and Coney Barrett while in IN earlier this week, then sat down with Kavanaugh in Washington on Wednesday.

Kethledge, 51, was appointed to his current post by Republican former President George W. Bush and was confirmed by the Senate in 2008. Ted Cruz of Texas, are supporting fellow Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, about the process.

As Donald Trump moves to finalize his Supreme Court pick, Judge Raymond Kethledge is getting a behind-the-scenes push portraying him as the consensus choice of conservatives.

Conservatives and some libertarian-leaning Republicans, including Sen.

Paul and another Republican, Sen.

Working closely with a White House team and consulting with lawmakers and outside advisers, Trump has spent the week deliberating on the choice. Trump a year ago appointed conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to take a seat that the Republican-led U.S. Senate, which must confirm nominees to the high court, had prevented Democratic former President Barack Obama from filling in 2016 following the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Democrats want to make it as excruciating as possible for a pair of moderate, pivotal Republican senators to back the selection because without a GOP defection, it's game over.

Some conservatives have pointed to Kethledge as a potential justice in the mold of Gorsuch.

Both Kavanaugh and Kethledge have lengthy conservative judicial records. Kethledge, of MI, serves on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

During the confirmation process, Senate Democrats questioned Barrett about her Catholicism and past writings in which she said Catholic judges were in a "legal bind" in cases related to abortion and the death penalty.

Kavanaugh serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.